Free Faces of Evil [4] Rage by Debra Webb

final act of her time on this earth. Jess hoped the wounds that told the story of her horrifying death would guide them to some answers about her killer or his motive.
    Dr. Martin Leeds stood next to his protégée like a beaming father about to introduce his one and only debutante to society.
    Weird. Just weird. Why would the ex-wife of the victim’s husband want anything to do with this? Was she that elated over the woman’s death? Had the two been friends? Seemed a stretch considering the victim stole her husband.
    Sergeant Harper waited next to Jess. She’d called him en route and asked him to meet her here. Two sets of eyes and ears were always better than one. On the way in they had talked about how odd this particular aspect of the situation was. Jess opted not to mention the awkward moments in the elevator when she’d smiled and informed both Wesley and Burnett that she would catch up with them later. She’d left them in BPD’s lobby with the suggestion that they have lunch together. Just because she couldn’t join them was no reason the two shouldn’t get to know each other better.
    Now that was weird.
    Jess wished she could be a fly on the table wherever Burnett and Wesley ended up sharing a meal, assuming they took her advice. As far as she was concerned, about the only difference between that scenario and this one with Sylvia and Gabrielle was that both men were still breathing. Maybe that fact made the situation even stranger.
    Maybe she and the snobbish Dr. Baron had more in common than either one would want to admit. The primary example was the nontraditional track they had both taken. Here they were in their forties with no husbands and no babies. Not to mention some sort of abnormal connection with an ex.
    “Due to the sensitive nature of this case, we’re giving Mrs. Grayson top priority,” Leeds announced, kicking things off and promptly evicting from Jess’s head thoughts of her two exes and her life’s wonky pattern. “I’ll be performing the autopsy at eight tomorrow morning. Based on our preliminary examination we, Dr. Baron and I, concur that the manner of death was, of course, homicide, and the most probable cause of death appears to be manual asphyxiation.”
    Like a well-choreographed dance routine, Baron stepped in next. “Note the slight bulging of the eyes and the petechial hemorrhaging.” She gestured, Vanna White style, with a gloved hand. “The lips are swollen and we found traces of blood in the mouth and nostrils, despite the absence of tissue injury in those areas. Based on that evidence, we anticipate that when we have a look at the lungs in the autopsy, we’ll find them gorged with blood and darker in color, confirming the assessment of manual asphyxiation.”
    Jess was impressed. She hadn’t expected such a thorough call this quickly. “That certainly adds a new twist to our investigation.” It definitely pushed Gabrielle’s murder even farther from the possibility of being related to the Lopez war. Jess felt confident there was no connection whatsoever. Yet someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make it look related. A distraction . A cunning killer worked extra hard to throw an investigation off his trail.
    “We will notify you as soon as the final report is available,” Leeds assured Jess. “For now that’s the best we can give you.”
    That was actually more than she had expected this early in the process.
    “I appreciate your assistance in our efforts to move swiftly on this one,” Jess said to Leeds. She acknowledged his colleague with a nod. “As you say, due to the sensitive nature of the case, time is more of an enemy than ever. The media will pounce on the idea that if the police can’t protect their own who can they protect? We don’t need another reason for folks to take the Stand Your Ground law the wrong way.” God knew national headlines had shown the bad end that resulted far too often from that misguided choice.
    “Chief Burnett conveyed